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Clear Communication by Design

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Clear Communication by Design Clear Communication by Design Presented by Michelle Boulton Michelle Communications [email protected] Words don’t exist in isolation. They are part of a page or a screen. How those words are arranged on the page or screen affects how they are perceived. The best designs are clean, clear, and concise. They help the reader navigate through the docu- ment to find the information they need and want. Legibility describes how easy it is to distinguish one letter from another. Readability describes the ease with which a text can be read and understood. Legibility vs These are different things but they are both based on the anatomy of type. Readability Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 2 What is Typography? It has a few different definitions: • The art or process of setting and arranging The purpose of type. • The style and appearance of text in print or Typography on screen. • Designing with type in order to communicate a message. Typography should not call attention to itself — its purpose is to make the text easier for the reader to navigate and understand. Many factors influence the effectiveness of typography: • Choice of typeface • Letter spacing • Type size • Letter case • Line length • Type style • Line spacing • Contrast • Alignment Typeface Typefaces can be roughly divided into two main groups / classifications: Serifs • Serif typefaces have been around since 1470. • Serifs are believed to be more readable than sans serifs because the serifs help to guide the eyes along. • Serifs are more commonly used than sans serifs, and they are the usual choice for long texts such as newspapers and books Sans serifs • Sans serifs did not appear until in the mid- 19th century, and they were not in common use until the 20th century. • Sans serifs are often used for headings rather than for body type. Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 3 Font or Typeface? This might be a good time to talk briefly about the Font or difference between ‘Font’ and ‘Typeface’ The font is the physical collection of letters, num- typeface bers, symbols, etc. (whether it’s a case of metal pieces or a computer file). The typeface is the design of the letters (the way it looks). The way I relate the difference is by comparing them to songs and MP3s (or CDs, if you prefer a physical metaphor). The MP3 is the delivery mechanism, not the creative work. In the same way, the font is the delivery mechanism and the typeface is the creative work. Type size Top of Caps Times New Roman Type size is generally measured in points. Baseline Typography The distance from the baseline (where all of the Type letters sit) to the top of the capital letters deter- size Typography Adobe Garamond mines the letter’s point size. Different typefaces in the same point size can appear to be different sizes. Typography Bookman Old Style Things that affect the “apparent size” of type: • How thick the letters are • The height of the ascenders and descenders How big should my text be ? There is no universally applicable guideline for font size, but the general range for body type is 9 to 12 points. Optimal size will depend on many things, includ- ing line length (or column width), clarity and proportions of the chosen typeface (see previous slide), and the age of the intended readers. Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 4 Line length Magnim verrum nos quid mo berum quo ommost, si bearchi liquis dolo verehendis dentist. Nem dem abo. Ehenda voluptat repero beruptae consequi occae con eatur, omnisciatet et ratiis molorem esciis re core peritat ipsam quassincto velitae et venditas dit alit odit, volupienit aut occusdaes si as resti dolorenimus amus estiorae nonseque corpore, optatur? Line length is also commonly referred to as “col- umn width.” It determines how well your eyes can Magnim verrum nos quid mo berum quo ommost, si bearchi liquis dolo verehendis dentist. Nem dem abo. Ehenda voluptat repero beruptae consequi occae con eatur, follow the text and it is crucial to readability. omnisciatet et ratiis molorem esciis re core peritat ipsam quassincto velitae et venditas dit alit odit, volupienit aut occusdaes si as resti dolorenimus amus estiorae nonseque corpore, optatur? A common question is, what is the optimal line length? Magnim verrum nos quid mo berum quo ommost, si bearchi liquis dolo verehendis dentist. Nem dem abo. Ehenda voluptat repero beruptae consequi occae con eatur, omnisciatet et Before I can answer that, we should talk a bit ratiis molorem esciis re core peritat ipsam quassincto velitae et venditas dit alit odit, volupienit aut occusdaes si as resti dolorenimus amus estiorae nonseque corpore, optatur? about how we read. Reading takes place in small leaps — fast eye movements — from one word or phrase to the next. This happens because a sharp and detailed visual perception can only happen in the central part of our retina. When we read, our eyes don’t move smoothly across the page. What our eye can see is something like the bot- tom image in the left-hand column. The eye clearly picks up 5–10 characters at a time. So, the question was, what is the optimal line length? The optimal line length for body type is about 55–60 characters (including spaces) per line. If a line of text is too long, it can be difficult to continue from the end of a line to the beginning of the correct next line in large blocks of text. If a line is too short the eye will have to travel back too often, encouraging readers to skim rather than read the text. Rule of thumb: You should be able to read from the beginning of a line to the end without turning your head. Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 5 Line spacing (or leading) Line spacing, or leading, refers to the space x height x leading between lines of type in a body of text. Top of caps The word ‘leading’ come from the early days of printing, when strips of lead were inserted Baseline type between the lines of type. kerning Correctly spaced lines improve the overall appear- ance of the text and make it easier for the reader to follow. Line length and line spacing are inseparable. Typically, long lines (wide columns) require more line spacing than short ones. A wide column with narrow line spacing looks very dense and heavy. Additional line spacing helps readers move more easily from one long line to the next one. Rule of thumb: make line spacing that 2–3 points larger than the font size. For example, 10-point text would have 12–13 point line spacing. Kerning Let’s go back to that earlier slide to talk briefly about kerning. Kerning refers to the space between individual characters within a word. Most modern typefaces don’t require additional kerning, especially at body text sizes. Letter spacing, or tracking Tracking is the spacing between the words. By increasing the tracking, you can create a more Letter spacing open, airy feel. Decreasing the tracking is rarely desirable, but can be used on occasion to bring up or tracking a short line of text. tracking Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 6 Type size, line length, and leading are inter- related. If you increase the type size, for example, you will also want to increase the space between lines to maintain legibility. Rule of thumb: space between letters should be less than space between the words, and space between the words should be less than the space between lines. Type style Use as few type styles as possible. Use as few type styles as possible and always be consistent, sticking to the same style for head- Avoid extra heavy or condensed styles. ings, subheadings, and body type throughout a document. Use bold and italics sparingly. • Avoid extra heavy or condensed styles. • Use variations such as bold and italics spar- Almost always avoid reverse type . ingly. • Almost always avoid reverse type. Here is an example: The paragraph on the left, set in Minion Pro Reg- ular, is easy to read. The paragraph on the right is also Minion Pro, but the style is Condensed Bold, which makes it much harder to get through. Contrast Contrast describes the relationship between the colours chosen for text and the background on text which the text sits. The greater the contrast between text and back- ground the more readable the text will be. So, text black text on a white background is the easiest to read. From there every combination makes text less readable. Clear Communication by Design by Michelle Boulton 7 Letter case When we read, we recognize words as much by their shape as by the letters they include. Text that SHAPE is set mainly in lowercase letters have ascend- ers and descenders (such as the h and p in this example). This gives words in lowercase letters a more distinctive shape than those in all capitals. Lowercase text is the most legible. Text set in all Shape caps is the least legible because each word is the same shape. When you use title case in sentences, the mixture of upper and lower case is also hard to read and Letter case should be reserved for headings. OUR EYES RECOGNIZE WORDS BY THEIR SHAPE AS WELL AS BY THE LETTERS THEY INCLUDE. TEXT SET IN ALL CAPS IS THE LEAST LEGIBLE To illustrate this, let’s look at some blurry text set BECAUSE EACH WORD IS THE SAME SHAPE. in sentence case and then text set in all caps (third Another Problem Occurs When You Use Title Case In slide down).
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